Among the holidays which are generally observed in the United States, none
excites more reverence in the breast of an American, or more respect in
the mind of a foreigner, than Decoration (or Memorial) Day.
Decoration Day was first celebrated in 1866, by Union soldiers and sailors
in Washington. In the spring of 1868 General John A. Logan,
commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order in
which he named May 30 as a day on which all members of the G.A.R. should
repair to the cemeteries in the towns in which they lived and there spread
flowers on the graves of their dead comrades.
Among the many tributes paid to our dead soldiers none has made a more
profound impression on two generations of American people than the speech
delivered by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, on November 19, 1863, on the
occasion of the dedication of a part of the famous battle-field as a
soldiers' cemetery. It is here given in full, from a manuscript in
Lincoln's own handwriting.